Germany pulls plug on one-time TV hit show 'Wanna Bet?'

Germany pulls plug on one-time TV hit show 'Wanna Bet?'

It has seen wacky bets performed before millions and hosted an A-List of Hollywood stars, however after a three-decade run Germany's once high-rated TV variety show is obtaining the axe.

A victim of plummeting ratings, a quick-greying fan base and charges that its concept has grown stale, "Wetten, dass..?" ("Wanna Bet?") will screen for the last time in December when 33 years.

Such is that the dated cult status of the silly-challenge show, once Europe's most successful programme, that Sunday newspapers gave front-page treatment to the general public broadcaster ZDF's decision to tug the plug on it.

The show's concept is of ordinary individuals performing often bizarre tricks and stunts, whereas celebrity guests sponsor them and need to perform mildly humiliating acts if they lose.

Since the Eighties, the show has featured a dog able to spot 77 toys named by its owner and a dairy farmer who may tell his cows apart by the different sounds they created when chewing apples.

One candidate modified a automotive tyre whereas driving, and the Berlin police bike squad broke a world record by forming a moving pyramid with 84 officers travelling on 9 bikes over 100 metres (328 feet).

In its heydey, the show kept German-speaking audiences glued to their sofas on Saturday nights, with viewers peaking at over twenty three million in the mid-80s.

The mass charm and guaranteed ratings drew countless stars hoping to plug their latest album or movie, from Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber to Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio.

- Plummeting ratings -

But changing audience tastes and the rise of cheaper-to-produce reality shows saw audience figures drop to an the lowest of 5.85 million in February.

Programme makers determined it was not price the value of a minimum of 2 million euros ($a pair of.7 million) per show, brought on by changing locations, generally as far away because the Spanish resort island of Mallorca.

Criticism has hailed down on the host Markus Lanz, for failing to replicate the little-screen magic of his predecessors, curly-haired Thomas Gottschalk and the show's founder, Frank Elstner.

Some stars on the show, that can run over 3 hours, were left scratching their heads, if not downright irritated, by the uniquely German take on family entertainment.

The actor Tom Hanks, who was created to wear a hat with cat ears when he went on the show, later said that "in the United States if you're on a TV show that goes for four hours, everybody accountable for that show is fired the next day".

On social media, reaction to the programme's demise was a combine of nostalgic farewells and "Schadenfreude", the gleeful pleasure at another's misfortune.

"Rest in peace," one tweet from a competing private TV station browse, while one viewer wrote that "finally the badly wounded deer is being place out of its misery".

Twitter user @DearDelight commented that "I'll hardly miss it, but the recollections of those '80s family TV evenings create me nostalgic", while @ramtoka scoffed: "Wanna bet that I won't miss this show?"

- Tragic accident -

The beginning of the end came when a bet went tragically wrong in 2010, leaving a young man paralysed from the neck down as eight million viewers watched in horror.

Samuel Koch, then 23, was wearing spring-loaded stilts as he tried to leap over five moving cars, however hit the windshield of the final vehicle, that was being driven by his father.

News magazine Der Spiegel additionally criticised the programme for that includes inappropriate advertising on what is a publicly-funded show.

A growing band of critics have accused German TV typically of being shallow and looking forward to tired concepts, from perennial police shows and model contests to costume dramas and programmes regarding Bavarian folk music.

Several are angry their broadcast taxes pay money for programmes that leave them bored and have long tuned out, opting instead for online downloads of acclaimed US series like "Breaking Dangerous" and "House of Cards".

But a Spiegel On-line commentary predicted that "given the poverty of concepts these days among the stations, you'll be sure that in a very few years there will be a remake of 'Wetten, dass..?'"